


Postcards From Dunwall

by Milo



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dadhonored, Fluff, Gen, Mute!Corvo - Freeform, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5281817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milo/pseuds/Milo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of oneshots set in a modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cooking With Daud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily wants pancakes. Daud happens to be awake. It's not even six o'clock in the morning.

Daud was not a morning person. Yet every single day he was up before sunrise. He hated it, but he was never able to sleep more even when he did try.

When he was home, there was always something to do, someone to talk to, some business to take care of. Whenever he stayed over at Corvo’s house, however, it was always very quiet at this time of day. Both Corvo and Emily would sleep in given the chance, which left Daud the full run of the house.

Generally speaking, he would go make himself coffee first thing. His coffeemaker was stained and dirty from overuse. Corvo’s, however, was well maintained and spotless, probably costing two or three times as much as the one Daud had. In combination with a moderately pricey Serkonan brand coffee, it worked magic. If Daud was honest one of the main reasons he stayed over was for that damn coffee. He had been tempted to take it with him several times.

The cupboards had an assortment of goofy mugs chosen by Emily and in Daud’s half-awake half-asleep state, he just grabbed whatever one he found first. He didn’t care enough to find his designated mug.

The living room had a nice view overlooking the sea, which was only a five to ten minute walk away. In the distance, the foggy Dunwall lighthouse was also visible. Daud ended up looking out at the scenery in a brief moment of contentment. If only the peace and quiet would last forever.

It didn’t. Not even five minute later, he heard movement upstairs. He glanced up. It wasn’t Corvo, definitely not. Corvo was obscenely quiet. Which meant that it was Emily. And, sure enough, Corvo’s little daughter appeared in the living room. She was still dressed in her yellow and white cat pajamas, and was rubbing at her eyes sleepily.

“Good morning, Daud,” she greeted. Daud grunted in response.

“It’s not even six o’clock. What are you doing awake?” Daud said.

“I had a bad dream and then I couldn’t go back to sleep,” she said. “I didn’t want to bother my Dad cause he was really tired when he came home last night.” She smiled. “That’s when I remembered that you were probably up!”

Emily went and sat down in one of the recliners in the living room. She hummed a familiar tune off key to break the silence. She didn’t say anything to Daud for a while, and he was glad for it. Daud said nothing in return. What was he supposed to do? Talk to her? He didn’t have any words of encouragement. He looked back out the window. He wasn’t a babysitter--or at least, he wasn’t supposed to be one. It wasn’t his job to comfort someone else’s kid.

Not that he even knew how.

“Hey Daud?” Emily said.

“What?” Daud replied, trying not to sound snappy. It was still too early for conversations.

“Do you know how to make pancakes?”

He did indeed.

“Is that your way of asking me to make you some?” he asked.

Emily shrugged. “Well, I could probably make them myself if I tried,” she said, “but Dad says that I have to be with an adult if I’m cooking something over the fire. And you’re an adult. So you could help me make them.”

Daud probably could have made up an excuse to escape the situation, gone elsewhere, avoided interacting with Emily, but he didn’t. Instead he nodded. “Alright,” he said. “I can supervise until Corvo wakes up.”

Emily’s face brightened up with a gleeful smile, and she hurried away into the kitchen. Daud followed after her. He didn’t know where anything in the kitchen was located--outside of the coffee supplies, of course, which were the only things that mattered--so he let Emily go about her business. He settled down in one of the three chairs at the table and watched her. She pushed one of the chairs to the counter, climbed on it, and retrieved a worn-out cookbook.

“Dad has the best pancake recipe!” Emily said. “He used to make them all the time for me--every single Sunday, we’d have pancakes with strawberries and cream on top.” She propped up the book against the heavy ceramic mixing bowl. “He’s too busy to do that now, though. But it’s okay. We can surprise him instead!”

She didn’t seem to expect a response from Daud, as she immediately went about retrieving the ingredients. She put the flour, milk, eggs, sugar, and a neat stack of measuring cups on the little island in the center of the kitchen. As she went about adding ingredients, she would squint at the directions again and again before adding something. Probably due to her excitement, Emily was a little less than graceful with cooking, and managed to spill flour, sugar, and milk on the counter.

Daud, meanwhile, sipped on his coffee and had almost finished it when Emily called him over to help with cooking the pancakes. Emily set out a medium sized frying pan for him while he moved the bowl closer to the stove.

“Can you make animal shaped ones?” Emily asked. “Like, cat and bunny shaped ones? And maybe some whales?”

Daud didn’t make pancakes often, only when he had a reason to, and he never made them shaped. So he simply shrugged and said, “I’ll try.”

The batter that Emily had mixed up was thick enough to retain a decent shape, which made creating lopsided cat heads, extra-round whales, and rabbits with too-long ears not very difficult. Emily seemed pleased with his handiwork and marveled at each perfectly cooked pancake. She piled six of them onto her plate, and set to covering the pile with whipped cream and sliced strawberries with sugar. She ate them quietly and with unprecedented manners.

Daud set to using the rest of the batter to create regular, uninteresting round pancakes. These were much easier to flip in the air. And when Daud flipped the pancakes into the air and caught it in the pan with ease, Emily gasped.

“ _Wow_!” she said, in awe. “That’s so cool!”

“Is it?” Daud said.

“Yeah! Dad doesn’t do that at all ever!” She hovered on his left, watching the pancake in the pan. “Can you teach me how to do that?”

Daud looked at her. “If you want to know,” he began, “first, you need to take hold of the pan.”

Emily wriggled her way in front of Daud and grabbed the handle of the pan. “Okay, I’ve got it. What do I do now?”

“You need to push the pan forward, and then pull it back, but it needs to be quick enough that the pancake will flip over and not out,” Daud explained. “Got it?”

“Mhm!”

Emily lifted the pan from the hot stovetop and jerked it forward. The pancake slid over the edge. She breathed in sharply and tried to make the pancake go back into the pan and not onto the burning hot surface of the stove. She pulled back, and pushed it forward, and back again, and eventually the pancake settled back into the pan. She huffed.

“That didn’t work at all,” she grumbled.

“You weren’t quick enough,” Daud said. He put his hands over Emily’s and steadied the pan. “Here, like this…”

Daud repeated the swift motions, and the pancake flipped over perfectly. It was a little overdone on one side, but it didn’t matter. Emily studied the motions seriously. Daud removed the pancake from the pan and set it aside on a plate with several other pancakes.

“Could you do it one more time?” she asked. “I wanna be super sure I know what to do.”

And he did, two more times with a fresh pancake just to be sure. Soon after, Emily tried it again. She pushed the pan forward and pulled back, and the pancake flopped over on the reverse side. She cried out, “Look! Did you see that? I did it! It was perfect!”

“Good work,” Daud said. “Do you think you can handle making some more by yourself?” She looked at him skeptically. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll watch you.”

“Hmm. Okay!” Emily nodded confidently. “I’ll make a huuuuuge stack of pancakes, just for Dad!”

There was more than enough batter to feed three people, and they ended up with four plates of pancakes. Sometime between six-thirty and seven o’clock, Corvo appeared without either of them noticing. He caught the two of them off guard with a yawn. Emily perked up when she saw him. He looked at the stacks of pancakes covering the table and blinked.

 _What is all this about?_   he signed.

“Daud helped me make breakfast!” Emily announced. Corvo looked at Daud, who shrugged.

It was then that Corvo noticed that the kitchen was a mess; flour on the counter, the floor, sugar spread around, and little drops of spilled milk. But then Emily showed him his plate of pancakes; a stack of five with a whipped cream smiley face that had a strawberry nose. Instead of getting cross, Corvo smiled a little at her.

 _Thank you_ , he signed, and he accepted them.

Emily, having finished her own stack, excused herself from the table to go and clean herself up. She was probably going to go back to sleep after that, Daud figured. This left him alone with Corvo, who was looking at him with a small, amused smile.

_You can cook?_

Daud huffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. Corvo shrugged, that same amused smile still there. “Just because I never had the opportunity to cook for _you_ doesn’t mean that I _can’t_.”

 _You could have fooled me_ , Corvo responded.

Daud mumbled something inaudible to himself. Corvo approached him slowly, and Daud could hear him chuckling in the quiet, airy sort of way that he did. He leaned down to Daud’s height and nuzzled him just a bit. Daud didn’t pull away.

Corvo set his plate down on the counter and fished out a mug from the cupboard--a mug that used to say “#1 Dad” but Emily had drawn a “U” in permanent marker between the “A” and the second “D”. That’s the mug Daud _would_ have used had he been fully conscious when he picked through the mugs. Corvo filled it with the still-warm coffee leftover from earlier.

 _I really appreciate you helping her_ , he signed to Daud. _She seemed happy_.

“It’s your rule,” Daud said. “She wasn’t allowed to do it herself. I happened to be awake.”

 _It’s still very much appreciated_. Then, Corvo noticed the mug in Daud’s hand. _That’s a fitting mug for you, by the way_.

Daud looked down at his chosen mug and made a face that wasn’t unlike the Grumpy Cat faces on it.

“Shut up,” he said. “It’s still too early.”


	2. Pet Feuds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daud is a dog person, Corvo is a cat person. Emily has a better plan in mind.

Spending his one and only day off with Corvo’s daughter, Emily, was perhaps the last thing on Daud’s mind. Yes, he did genuinely like Emily, but he also had plenty of other obligations that extended beyond their household. Even when he wasn’t needed at work, he would still go in lest the whole damn operation fall apart when he wasn’t watching.

But Corvo had plans, and when he phoned their usual sitter she canceled at the last minute...and this left Daud stuck all day with Emily.

It was a Saturday, which meant that Emily didn’t have school or homework to keep her occupied. Daud assumed he would get roped into something. But Emily, it seemed, was preoccupied with something much more interesting on her computer. She was sat in the kitchen with the laptop on the table and was staring at it with a smile on her face. He approached her slowly.

“What is it you’ve been doing over here, all by yourself?” Daud asked.

Emily looked at him, and then back at the screen. “Dad said I could get a pet,” she said. “I’ve been asking him for soooo long now, but he only just said it was okay!”

“I’m surprised he didn’t let you have one before now,” he said.

“Mommy had allergies,” she explained.

“...Ah,” Daud said, averting his gaze.

“Oh, look at this one!” Emily pointed to the screen, particularly at a large fluffy grey cat. Daud looked at the screen. On it was an adoption site covered in pictures of cats. “He said that we should get a cat, since it would be the best choice. I’ve been looking to see what kinds of kitties need new homes.”

A cat. Of course Corvo would say that. Daud shook his head. “What we need for this house is a _dog_ ,” he said. “Not a cat.”

“A dog?” Emily repeated.

“They’re loyal, easy to train, and would make for a good companion,” Daud said. “Cats are unruly and unpredictable. A dog would ensure our protection against possible intruders.”

If he was honest, Daud didn’t like animals much at all. But if there had to be any animal in the house, he was going to make sure it was something that would listen to him. A cat couldn’t be taught to sit and stay when Daud wanted to eat his dinner without being stared at. That, and should he ever be gone from the house, a larger dog would be sufficient temporary protection for Emily.

Emily thought about this for a moment before she smiled. “I like puppies,” she said. She turned back to the computer and tapped away at the keys. “Let’s see if we can find some…”

Daud simply stood and watched, saying nothing despite being a little overwhelmed. He didn’t use computers much, only when he needed to, and he was a little...behind on the times. The fact that Emily knew how to use it with such precision when he had to call Thomas every time he hit the wrong button was a little embarrassing.

Emily scrolled through page after page of dog pictures, some old, some young, all taken with the same basic camera it seemed. Daud squinted to read some of the smaller print.

“And these dogs are from…?” Daud trailed off.

“Oh! They’re from shelters in the area,” Emily said. “See this one?” She pointed to a picture of an aged Golden Retriever. “She’s from the town next to ours. And the one down here is from...Oh!” She pointed to a picture of a few puppies. “These ones are here in the Dunwall Animal Rescue! Can we go there and see them, Daud? Can we?”

“I’ve got nothing else to do today,” Daud said. “Why not.”

In all honesty, he would have been more content with staying home and doing nothing. But at least going out for a while would kill some time. And it would be a golden opportunity to win Emily over to his side of the pet debate; there was no way in hell he was going to let Corvo bring a damned cat into the house.

The animal shelter was about as much as Daud imagined it to be; dirty, smelly, and filled with too many people. But Emily walked into it like it was a castle, and was so excited that she seemed to only just be able to contain herself She kept looking at Daud and jumping in place. Once pointed in the direction of the dog kennels by the helpful red-haired man at the front desk, Emily took Daud by the hand and pulled him off to see them.

Dunwall Animal Rescue had fewer cats and a much larger system of dog kennels than other shelters, and Daud was familiar with them. He once adopted two Wolfhounds with no intention to do so, which was a long and complicated story, but the dogs themselves proved to be capable workers.

The two of them perused the cages, with Emily occasionally stopping to comment on an animal’s name or breed. The kennel mostly had older dogs, which wasn’t much of a surprise. And then they reached a particular kennel...filled with six puppies. Emily let out a shrill, excited noise. The puppies noticed her immediately, and all came at the wire door, their little tails wagging excitedly.

“Oh!” she said. “Look at them, Daud! They’re all so cute!”

Emily decided to help herself to the kennel, undoing the locking mechanism and sneaking into the kennel with the dogs. Daud decided to forgo being slobbered and peed on by a bunch of mutts and stayed at a distance. He lifted a clipboard off of a hook on the wall that had the animals’ information on it.

“...Spaniel/Retriever mixes,” he said. “Or so they theorize. Apparently they came in off the street several weeks ago.”

It wasn’t a bad mix of dogs. The litter probably would grow up with a good temperament, and they would be fairly easy to train. Full grown, they would be dogs of average size. He glanced at Emily, who was helping herself to the bunch, arms holding several of the wiggly, squeaking puppies. They licked at her neck and chin and just about anywhere else they could reach. She was giggling all the while.

“I love them already!” she said. She looked at Daud hopefully. “Daud—Daud you should come in here and play with them too! They’re so soft and loving and—”

“I’m fine standing out here,” Daud said firmly. He paged through the documents on the clipboard “Hm...these dogs still need a few shots...spaying and neutering fees…They’ll need to be housebroken as well.”

He heard the click of the kennel lock and a moment later a cold, slimy nose was pushed into his cheek. He turned to face Emily, who was holding one of the dogs up to see him. It was wagging its tail as fast as it could.

“I think he likes you, Daud,” she said.

Before he could respond, the other five puppies in the litter rushed at his feet. Emily had left the door open, or had at least forgotten to latch it. The little brown pups pawed at his pants and sniffed his knees, trapping Daud up against the wall.

“Hey—!” he said, nudging the little animals gently with his boot. “Get off—Get off of me! Shoo!”

Emily watched him and the dogs for a moment before she sat down on the floor, putting her puppy onto her lap. The other dogs immediately ceased attacking Daud’s pant legs and rushed to see her, aiming for her face. Daud let out a huff. “These animals shouldn’t be out running around like this,” he said, eyeing a puppy that was wandering off down the hall. “They’ll only make a mess.”

“I’m watching ‘em,” Emily said as she determinedly tried to pile as many of the animals into her lap.

Daud rolled his eyes and went off after the stray puppy. It was running along the kennels, peeking into each cage that held an adult dog as it made its way toward the door on the far side of the hallway. It wagged its little tail and barked excitedly. Daud picked it up with one hand. It squeaked in surprise, looked up at him, and then wriggled around wildly, forcing Daud to handle it with both hands.

“Damn trouble making pup,” he muttered under his breath. He turned around and walked back toward Emily. “This one is going to give someone a lot of grief.”

Emily laughed again. “...Y’know what? You’re right, Daud,” she said as she pet the dogs in her arms. “A puppy would be a good idea. I could take it for walks, and it can sleep in my bed...” One of the pups sniffed her face and she kissed it on the nose. “I dunno how I’m ever gonna pick a single one of you, though…”

“You don’t have to choose from this litter,” Daud said. “We could always get a different dog.”

“Maybe,” she said. “I do really like these guys, though.” She looked up at Daud as he piled the little troublemaker puppy onto her. “I’m gonna have to think about it.”

 

* * *

 

Emily and Daud walked back into the house chattering about different dog breeds. Daud was considering breeds with guard dog attributes. He suggested more fearsome looking dogs; German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Irish Wolfhounds. Emily, however, still had those mix breed puppies on her mind. But more than anything, she wanted to know what her father thought about this before she got ahead of herself.

Corvo had only been home for around five minutes, as indicated by his jacket still being on, when Emily pounced on him and started to tell him about the day she had with Daud, sparing no detail. He listened carefully, occasionally nodding, signing, or smiling to what she was saying. But then she got to the part where she asked about adopting a puppy… 

Daud already knew what Corvo would have to say about it. And his intuition was correct.

 _We’re not getting a dog_ , Corvo signed with a small frown on his face.

“Aww…” Emily said. “But you said I could get a pet.”

 _I thought you were all set to get a cat?_ Corvo asked.

Daud interrupted their conversation with, “A dog would make a great first pet for her. It’s easy to train, and could protect Emily whenever we’re both too busy.”

 _I don’t like dogs and you know it_ , Corvo continued.

“And what’s a cat going to do to help your daughter? The thing will probably scratch her,” Daud said. Corvo frowned at him.

As they argued, Emily took a seat on the couch and watched them. She looked from Daud, to Corvo, and back again as each of them responded to the other with another retort that shot down the other’s suggestion. Eventually she raised her hand and spoke up to try and stop them.

“Um…” she said. Corvo looked down at her, and Daud stopped talking. “Why don’t we get a different pet, then? If Daud doesn’t want a cat and you don’t want a dog, then why don’t we pick something else? I’ve got some choices of my own.”

The two men looked at each other. Corvo was the first to answer.

 _That’s fair_ , Corvo signed. _It is going to be your pet, after all. You should have the first choice._

He looked at Daud, who was grumbling a little to himself, clearly annoyed that they weren’t going to go with his choice of pet. But he nodded to Emily anyway. “What do you have in mind?” he asked her.

Emily tapped her chin and hummed. “Hmmm...Well,” she began, “as much as I like puppies and kitties, there _was_ one other animal I was thinking about doing a little research on…”

 

* * *

 

Daud came home one evening only to be surprised by Emily, who had her hands full of her two spoiled rotten...rats.

Of all things, Emily had decided to “adopt” a couple of rats into their home. When she’d mentioned another animal, Daud had assumed she meant a hamster, rabbit, or guinea pig. Not rats. She named the two “Miss Petterson” and “Cleo” and she was scarcely seen without the two in her arms or on her shoulder. The things even had their own sweaters, hand-knit by Emily to fit them perfectly.

“Hi Daud!” she greeted. Then, she lifted her white rat up to poke Daud on the cheek with its tiny whiskered face. Daud wrinkled his face. “Hello from Cleo, too! We missed you.”

“How do you know that the _rats_ missed me?” Daud muttered.

“Oh, I know, alright!” Emily looked between her two rats and their blank looks with a smile. “I missed you, so they missed you too! I can tell.”

The little rodent sniffed at him, its whiskers tickling his chin as it went along his jaw. He pulled away from it. “Ah…” he said. “I’m a bit...busy at the moment. Why don’t you take your rats to play somewhere else?”

Emily pulled Cleo back from Daud and rested the white rat back on her shoulder. “Aww...okay,” she said. “Dad’s upstairs if you need him.”

Daud nodded to her before she scampered away and down the hall with the rats in hand, humming some tune to herself as they clung onto her shoulders. He shook his head and headed off to find Corvo.

Rats...why rats?


	3. Cuts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drabble based on a prompt from Tumblr.

Now Daud had been tending to the cut on his arm by himself–as he usually did, with mixed results. He’d thought he locked the bathroom door, but was surprised by Emily walking in on him. And, of course, she panicked at the sight of the gash on his upper arm.

“ _Oh my god_!” she squealed, stepping back. Her eyes widened and she put her hands to her mouth.

Daud looked at his arm, and then at Emily. “Uh, it’s not–”

Emily turned around and hurried away down the hall. “Dad!” she called. “Daud got hurt! He’s hurt really bad!”

Which of course drew Corvo’s attention immediately, and seconds later he appeared in the doorway with a decently sized first aid kit under his arm. He sized Daud up, but the moment he saw it was just a cut he became calm again. He looked back down the hall to where Emily was presumably hiding, signing to her too quickly for Daud to catch.

Corvo approached Daud and looked at his, admittedly shabby, attempt at cleaning it. He gestured for Daud to sit down. Daud frowned at him.

“It’s just a stupid cut. I can do this myself,” Daud said. Corvo gave him a look which made him scowl and gestured again for him to sit down. Daud did so, albeit reluctantly.

 _It’s too high up_ , Corvo signed to him. _You can’t bandage it properly_. He paused to examine the cut more closely, squinting at it. Then, he continued, _It’s not deep enough to require stitches. You’re lucky_.

“What? Are you a doctor now, too?”

 _No, but I do know a thing or two about this from experience_.

From the first aid kit he had brought in, Corvo pulled out a little bottle, some paper towels, and a little roll of bandages. He soaked the paper towel with a little water from the sink and some of the contents of the tiny bottle. Corvo then took Daud’s upper arm gently, careful not to squeeze it or touch the wound. But when Corvo touched it with a damp paper towel, Daud flinched.

“ _Augh_ –What’s on that thing, acid?”

 _Disinfectant_ , Corvo replied. _Surely you can handle a little disinfectant_?

Emily peeked in through the crack in the door, her eyes filled with worry. “Is…Is Daud gonna be okay, Dad?” she asked quietly. “His arm was all bloody…”

Daud glanced at her, then at Corvo, who was smirking a little as he continued cleaning and bandaging the cut. “I’m fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll live.”


End file.
